“The Quadrennial Choosing”

Walt Whitman celebrates democracy in America

American poet Walt Whitman celebrates the act of voting in “Election Day, November, 1884.” He emphasizes that the “heart of it” is not the actual election of a president, but instead “the act itself … the quadrennial choosing” that honors American democracy.

Election Day, November 1884

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,

Despite its patriotism, former U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky thinks “Election Day, November 1884” is “not wet or glibly sunny.” He says Whitman presents voting as “not beautiful or sacred, but as powerful.” What language in the poem supports this interpretation?

The poem begins with Whitman inventing a new word—“powerfulest.” Then, in Pinsky’s interpretation, “He compares [voting] not to forest glades or meadows but to the fluid, dynamic energy of rivers, geysers and waterfalls and to the immense scale of mountains and prairies.”

Whitman alludes to the immense, invisible pressure that creates both “spasmic geyser-loops” and “stormy gusts.” He openly welcomes “the darker odds, the dross” of the election process.

Even the ending of the poem is active—“the heart pants, life glows.” The energy, the pressure, the darkness—these forces ultimately swell the sails of the ships of state.

The United States has added a number of new states and territories since 1884. States that were admitted to the United States after the 1884 election are:

North Dakota (1889)

South Dakota (1889)

Montana (1889)

Washington (1889)

Idaho (1890)

Wyoming (1890)

Utah (1896)

Oklahoma (1907)

New Mexico (1912)

Arizona (1912)

Alaska (1959)

Hawaii (1959)

Territories added to the United States after the 1884 election are:

Guam (1899)

Puerto Rico (1899)

American Samoa (1900)

U.S. Virgin Islands (1917)

Northern Mariana Islands (1986)

Take a look at the list above, of new states and territories added to the United States since Walt Whitman wrote “Election Day, November 1884.” What geographic features in these states and territories would you include if the poem was written today? Consider Whitman’s preference for active, energetic imagery.

Many groups have been formally empowered to vote in presidential elections since 1884. Some of these groups include:

women (1920)

Native Americans as a whole (many had voting rights, but many did not) (1924)

residents of Washington, D.C. (1961)

those unable or unwilling to pay a poll tax (1966)

citizens between the ages of 18 and 21 (1971)

Briefly consider presidential leadership since Walt Whitman wrote “Election Day, November 1884.” What presidents endured particularly “stormy gusts and winds”—who would you recognize if the poem was written today?

Franklin Roosevelt (who led the U.S. through the Great Depression and World War II)

John F. Kennedy (the nation’s first Catholic president)

George W. Bush (who led the U.S. through the events of 9/11 and the Great Recession)

Barack Obama (the nation’s first African American president)

Read through these poems on election season in the U.S.: “On Election Day” by Charles Bernstein or “Election Year” by Donald Revell. How does their language and outlook differ from Whitman’s robust, optimistic verse?

“Election Day, November 1884” is not the only Walt Whitman poem that uses a nautical theme to evoke presidential leadership. Whitman’s breathtaking “O Captain! My Captain” uses nautical metaphors to mourn the death of Abraham Lincoln.

The actual presidential election of 1884 pitted New York Governor Grover Cleveland (D) against Speaker of the House James G. Blaine (R-Maine). (The incumbent president, Chester A. Arthur, was not nominated for a second term.) The race was very close and very ugly. Cleveland was accused of fathering a child out of wedlock, while his opponent earned the nickname “James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the state of Maine.” Blaine’s camp also made notoriously anti-Catholic statements. Cleveland eventually won the election, and is the only U.S. president to have served two non-consecutive terms. (He was defeated for re-election by William McKinley in 1888, but voted into office again in 1892.)

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) is among the most influential poets in American history. His monumental work, Leaves of Grass, was self-published in 1855 and Whitman continued to update it for the rest of his life. “Election Day, November 1884” is from the final edition of Leaves of Grass, published in 1892.

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Writer

Caryl-Sue, National Geographic Society

Editor

Jeannie Evers, Emdash Editing

Producer

Caryl-Sue, National Geographic Society

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